TECHNOLOGY - Oct. 23, 1992

Conner Peripherals to Buy Archive: Conner Peripherals Inc. agreed to acquire Costa Mesa-based Archive Corp., one of the nation’s leading makers of computer data storage systems, for $210.4 million. The price per share--$11.25--is 66% higher than Archive’s closing price Thursday of $6.75 on NASDAQ. Neither Archive nor Conner would elaborate on the announcement until an agreement is signed, perhaps as early as the first week in November. Analysts said the deal will further Conner’s efforts to expand beyond disk drives to complete data-storage systems. They said a pending secondary offering by Archive has kept its stock artificially depressed in recent weeks. It has traded as high as $10 a share the last year. Cash-rich Conner, based in San Jose, is the nation’s second-largest independent disk-drive maker.